Inglés para adolescentes: 10 amazing facts about mount Rushmore

Te invitamos a leer 10 datos asombrosos sobre el monte Rushmore en inglés: 10 amazing facts about mount Rushmore. Una lectura muy interesante, elaborada por la redacción de la revista para aprender inglés I Love English, basado en el contenido que pueden leer en el número 336 de la revista (octubre 2021).

Esta lectura en inglés para adolescentes ayudará a los jóvenes entre 12 y 15 años a mejorar su nivel de inglés y además, aprenderán un montón de curiosidades sobre este monumento nacional estadounidense, un complejo esculpido en piedra entre 1927 y 1941 enKeystone, Dakota del Sur y en la que se pueden ver el rostro de cuatro presidentes de Estados Unidos.

Ver +: Divertidas lecturas en inglés para adolescentes

10 amazing facts about mount Rushmore: 10 amazing facts about mount Rushmore 

 
1. Mount Rushmore is a 1,745-metre-high granite sculpture in a small, isolated mountain range called the Black Hills, in South Dakota, USA. The Black Hills used to belong to Native American Sioux tribes. Today, the Sioux are still fighting to get their sacred land back.
 
2. The massive sculpture carved into the granite peak shows the heads of four American presidents: George Washington (1732-1799), Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) and Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). Each head is 18 metres high!
 
3. Sculptor Gutzon Borglum thought these four presidents represented the most important events in the history of the USA: George Washington was the first President of the USA; Thomas Jefferson was the primary author of the American Declaration of Independence; Theodore Roosevelt was widely known for conservation efforts; and Abraham Lincoln abolished slavery in the USA.

 
4. Initially, there was much debate about the election of the fourth president. Borglum wanted President Roosevelt for building the Panama Canal. Others, in contrast, wanted Woodrow Wilson for his leading role during World War I. Ultimately, the sculptor chose Roosevelt.
 
5. Borglum's original idea was to carve not only the faces of the four presidents, but to sculpt them from the waist up. However, the lack of funding given by Congress ruined Borglum?s ambitions.
 
6. The monument project began in 1927 and ended in 1941. 400 men worked on it. First, they used dynamite, then they drilled holes into the rock and removed small pieces by hand. They removed more than 400,000 tonnes of rock from the mountain.
 
7. The carving of Thomas Jefferson's face was originally started on George Washington's right, but the granite was full of quartz and after 18 months his face was dynamited off and carved on the other side.
 
8. Mount Rushmore was named after New York attorney Charles E. Rushmore, who had visited the area in 1885. He considered it a perfect location for a grand monument due to its height and its composition of granite. Rushmore himself donated money to get the sculpture started.
 
9. Gutzon Borglum died seven months before the project was finished. It was then completed by his son, Lincoln Borglum. The conservation of the sculpture is overseen by the National Park Service. Cracks, for instance, are sealed with silicone and disguised with granite dust. Also, monitoring devices were installed to track movement in the topology of the site.
 
10. Mount Rushmore was carved to bring tourists to South Dakota. It worked! Today, it?s one of the most-visited tourist sites in the USA. More than two million people visit it each year! Tourists love it.